In "Fishfull of Dollars", or (wtf), we saw Fry's stuff being repossesed. Didn't he buy that stuff at auction, paying cash? Perhaps they were impounding the stuff to get it off the streets, and he got it back later when he got his old apt back.
I still like the line, "What century is this?", (when he should be able to easily tell by visual clues as to the century..).